Well..... I've never wanted to come out as a woman, but it is a powerful story. I think we can all relate to this to a degree, especially when dealing with the fear of losing those we love for coming out about our beliefs that differ from those of other JWs and the consequences of vocalizing our discontent. I wish I could be as courageous as her (still feels weird saying her though, lol).
pronomono
JoinedPosts by pronomono
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I Am Cait
by cognac indoes anyone else relate to this as much as i do?
the fears, heartache, everything she went through to finally come out... just so courageous!!
!
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Do not Disassociate, Anull your baptism
by jwfacts ini am now a jedi, so trust me on this.. .
why dis-associate, you are just playing by the wts rules?
how can you dis-associate anyway, you never thought you were baptised as a watchtower society member, you thought your dedication was to god, so why formally disassociate from something you did not formally join?
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pronomono
This would be interesting to try. I've long thought my baptism wasn't valid because I was kind of pushed into it. My COBE (then Presiding Overseer) asked me at 15, "Son, why haven't you got baptized?" My response: "I don't know." "We have an assembly coming up. If you want to start the questions, we can get you baptized then." "Okay..." And that was that.
I lied when they questioned me on if I had dedicated myself in prayer to Jehovah. I didn't quite understand it at the time. Why should I have to tell him? He can see me, right? He should know my heart and if I'm dedicating my life. Anyways, after I lied, I did a brief perfunctory prayer to right my lie. Other questions I answered plain wrong because I didn't know the answer and wasn't thinking with a "spiritual" mindset.
I often think that if that conversation never happened, I wouldn't have been baptized until much later, if ever. Because once I got baptized, they made me feel useful with lots of chores and responsibilities. I got the big head, enjoyed serving, and kept reaching out for more and more.
Once that dried up and I realized that they were only so good to me because of what I was willing to do for them, I started seeing things with a different perspective. Regardless, I now wish I never got baptized.
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Had my Hopes up for this Regional Convention
by James Jack inheard a lot buzz for our upcoming convention.
those that already been were saying how great it was and all the videos that were presented.. well, thus far not impressed!
in fact many times pure insanity!
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pronomono
London: The best convention ever!
I have to second that for a great number of reasons.
1) All the videos kept it from being too drab and dry. (Translation: I had something else to laugh at.)
2) I missed half of the assembly, mostly at my wife's suggestion.
3) They released their first full length Lifetime original movie.
4) I saw a grown man cry on stage. (Seriously, during the last part Sunday where they have the video visualizing how everyone gets their own perfect beach island in the sun, the speaker said he always gets choked up when he sees it and started crying. It took him a minute to get his composure. This was more sad than anything. )
It was a little disappointing witnessing the death of the live-action drama, though.
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Commentary Press
by Hold Me-Thrill Me infrom commentary press: "in honor of raymond & cynthia franz, the present copyright owner of crisis of conscious and in search of christian freedom is committed to further distribution of these publications.
more details will be forthcoming.".
http://www.commentarypress.com/.
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pronomono
It looks like I'm a month late to this party. I had this very question today and was interested in seeing it go back into print, maybe with someone writing a foreword in dedication to the life of Ray and Cynthia. It'd be nice to see someone today that is continuing the work of exposing JW lies and hypocrisy to do a foreword, someone who themselves has been influenced by Ray..... John Cedars or Paul Grundy maybe? I wish there were some real contact information on the Commentary Press website so that we could get an answer as to where continued publishing stands. It still needs to be available as a PDF/ebook for secrecy, but as was mentioned, some of us still want a physical copy, for me if nothing more to remind me of who I was and who helped me change for the better. -
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Will Anything at The Convention Make Those That Are In Start To Question Anything?
by disillusioned 2 inmy husband, as far as i know, has never seen any of the gb.
with all the videos on at the convention showing the gb speaking, is there anything that would make him think wth!.
he thinks the gb are special, appointed by jehovah, that god speaks to them and imparts special knowledge.
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pronomono
I don't think so. I agree with The_Doctor. The doubters were pretty convincing. They brought up points I hadn't ever thought of. "Nobody actually saw him heal her. He rushed everyone out of the room." The drama presented the faith as a blind faith that you have no evidence in, just hearsay. The more I thought about it, I realized that I can see that now. But honestly, if I was still in I wouldn't have batted an eye. I would have thought, "Hmmm, really good points! We do have the truth." I imagine the only ones who really caught on were those already mentally out or starting to doubt. -
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This just happened within last 15 mins......
by Lied2NoMore ini saw an instagram post showing a short clip of a talk being given in one of our southern states.
the talk clip showed speaker making the statement, "jehovah doesn't want anyone to know satans real name, jehovah hates satan so much, he doesn't even want his name mentioned" .
i posted in comments: matt 5:44-48 with the full scripture rendered from niv.
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pronomono
I heard this same mindless drivel today. I almost laughed. "That's why the Bible always assigns titles to him...... Satan, Devil, etc." Yes, SE USA. -
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Try Other Religions
by Sofia Lose insometimes i get a strong curiosity to start dabbling into other religions, other faiths, you know?
really different ones such as islam, judaism, hinduism, etc.. has anyone here looked into something else?
has your spirituality been satisfied by any other than christianity?.
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pronomono
I think looking at other religions is great. But you have to be careful. Look at the arguments of those that are both for and against the religions. Look at the propaganda. And then look at the expose' on the propaganda. Find people who love the religion, and then find those who are objective in their opposition to the religion. Going through this process, I found that all religion is a snare & a racket. For me it turned from a search for faith and God, into an educational exercise and helped solidify my views as an agnostic.
For me, I found that all the research and critical thinking that I learned while investigating my views as a JW was just as helpful in investigating and exposing the hypocrisy and false teachings of other religions. But I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent learning about other religions and thought processes. After a while, you realize that there's not much difference between Jews, Islamics, Christians, etc. Most of them believe much of the same, just in different flavors, forms, and shapes. It's all the same crock of lies.
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Help me identify a small cyst...
by pronomono ini'm having problems identifying a small cyst that i get every once in a great blue moon.
i like to call it a lollipop cyst because it looks like a really small lollipop.
so, it's basically a small cyst at the tip of a really small shaft (not my penis).
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pronomono
It's good to know it's not serious. I've thought about snipping it with disinfected toenail clippers. It's small enough I can get around it. But usually it doesn't bother me enough to the point that I can't wait for it to go away on it's own. -
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Help me identify a small cyst...
by pronomono ini'm having problems identifying a small cyst that i get every once in a great blue moon.
i like to call it a lollipop cyst because it looks like a really small lollipop.
so, it's basically a small cyst at the tip of a really small shaft (not my penis).
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pronomono
That looks about right! The shaft on mine is a little smaller, but looking at other images on Google, I think we have a winner. Thanks, Splash. Now I know what to research. -
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The first 4000 years Jehovah communicates with humans,the next 2000 years is given to Jesus and he communicates with no one.
by smiddy inthe bible has ample evidence of god communicating with humans during the first 4 centuries.. since jesus time ,god has not communicated with humans at all .,in the same way as he did in the first 4 centuries .. in fact jesus has not communicated with humans in the same way as jehovah did for the first 4000 years., during his 2000 years to this date , .
does not the bible say , god does not change , he is the same today as he was yesterday and will be tomorrow ?.
so why was god communicating with humans on a regular basis , one way or another for 4000 years and then , neither jehovah or his son jesus christ ever directly contacted humans ?.
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pronomono
God's silence was a major factor in me becoming agnostic. I had many prayerful nights looking for an answer, some reassurance. But nothing. I reasoned that God comforted his people in the past, that if I ask I shall receive, so I asked for guidance, for reassurance, for more faith, for something to believe in. The silence was deafening. So then I cursed God hoping to die. Still silence. That night was a major turning point. I realized either God didn't care or he didn't exist. Either way he was dead to me and not something/someone that I wanted to believe in. Same goes for Jesus. Realizing that I might have been taught to pray the wrong way, I prayed to Jesus asking for the same and repenting of my sins. Still nothing. So I gave up. I've been a lot happier since.